Description

Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, in particular, one marked by the move from feudalism (or agrarianism) toward capitalism, industrialisation, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance (Barker 2005, 444). Conceptually, modernity relates to the modern era and to modernism, but forms a distinct concept. Whereas the Enlightenment
invokes a specific movement in Western philosophy, modernity tends only
to refer to the social relations associated with the rise of
capitalism. Nevertheless modernity may characterise tendencies in
intellectual culture: particularly, those movements intertwined with
secularisation and post-industrial life, such as Marxism and existentialism, as well as the formal establishment of social science. In context, modernity has been associated with cultural and intellectual movements occurring between 1436 and 1789, and extending to the 1970s or later (Toulmin 1992, 3â€“5).